1. Field of the Invention
This invention belongs to a technical field of a disc drive in which a disk-like recording medium such as an optical disk like a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and the like is loaded to enable a recording and/or a reproduction of data to be carried out.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art disc drive in which an optical disk such as a CD-ROM or DVD and the like is loaded in a case while the disk is not covered and data is recorded and/or reproduced, it is a general matter to apply a structure in which a spindle motor having an optical disk installed therein and an optical pick-up for recording and/or reproducing data in or from the optical disk are stored in a case and after the optical disk is loaded on a disk table of the spindle motor, the upper part of the case is closed with a dust-proof top cover.
In addition, some of the prior art devices are operated such that the recording and/or reproduction of data is carried out while either a part of or entire optical disk is exposed out of the case.
However, this type of prior art disc drive showed a remarkable thin size of an entire case by promoting a thin size of a spindle motor or an optical pick-up and in turn in the case of the former system, it was needed to assure a storing space for the optical disk in the case, so that a width or a depth size of the case could not be reduced to a value less than a diameter of the optical disk and the device was inconvenient in its portable state.
In addition, since the latter case was constructed such that the case could be reduced to a size less than a diameter of the optical disk, although the data was recorded and/or reproduced while the optical disk was being exposed out of the case, so that its dust-proof was quite poor, either foreign materials or a user""s hand or fingers were contacted with the optical disk rotated at a high speed to cause the optical disk to be damaged or the user was easily injured and so it was lack of safety.
The present invention has been completed in order to resolve the aforesaid problems and it is an object of the present invention to provide a disc drive in which during its use state a disk-like recording medium can be stored safely in a case and during its non-use state the case can be folded into a small size.
The disc drive of the present invention for accomplishing the aforesaid object comprises a bottom member of the case in which the spindle motor having the disk-like recording medium mounted thereon and means for recording and/or reproducing the disk-like recording medium mounted thereon and a top member of the case for opening or closing the upper part of the bottom member, wherein at least one of these bottom member and top member is constructed in such a way that it may be extended or retracted to cause the disk storing space for storing the disk-like recording medium to be formed within the case.
The disc drive of the present invention constructed as described above is made such that at least one of a bottom member of the case in which the spindle motor having the disk-like recording medium mounted thereon and means for recording and/or reproducing the disk-like recording medium mounted thereon and a top member of the case for opening or closing the upper part of the bottom member is formed to be extendable or retractable to constitute the extendable or retractable case, thereby the disk storing space is formed within the case under extension or retraction of the case.